


satisfaction brought me back

by dagorhir (Dagorhir)



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Cat Ears, F/F, Rule 63, School Festivals, utter failure to be subtle
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-17
Updated: 2020-08-17
Packaged: 2021-03-06 01:27:41
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25945093
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dagorhir/pseuds/dagorhir
Summary: Kuroo makes a bold costume choice. Yaku is flustered, outraged about being flustered by a stupid costume, and infuriated at how hot that jackass is in said stupid costume.
Relationships: Kuroo Tetsurou/Yaku Morisuke
Comments: 4
Kudos: 62
Collections: Haikyuu!! Volleygirls





	satisfaction brought me back

**Author's Note:**

> Written for Day 2: Animals of #HQvolleygirls week. Angry x smirky is one of my very favourite ship dynamics.

Kuroo's class is doing a themed cafe for the school festival, she explains.

Lev looks baffled. "But the festival isn't for two weeks, why are you wearing the costume now?" Her eyes flick up to the top of Kuroo's head.

Kuroo laughs. "Advertising! And also practice. I knocked these off my head three times this morning – I've got to get used to them." She reaches up to adjust the headband.

Apparently this is a perfectly reasonable explanation. Lev nods, expresses enthusiasm about the festival, extracts a promise from Kuroo that her senpai will visit her class's event, and then bounds over to where Kenma is begrudgingly setting for spiking practice.

To Yaku, though, it's a completely unreasonable explanation. Their team captain showed up to afternoon practice wearing a cat ear headband; there's no situation in which that's appropriate.

It's especially obnoxious because Kuroo is probably just wearing them for attention. Yaku has watched her become popular with many of the boys and some of the girls over the years, and Kuroo has responded by becoming a total flirt. She's probably loving the reactions she gets – a tall, smart, athletic third-year girl striding down the corridors, wearing cat ears and smirking at people. Yaku would bet her classmates didn't even put her up to it; she probably volunteered.

As she's glaring her disapproval, Kuroo takes her hair out of its ponytail and shakes it out so it falls around her face. In the instant before she gathers it back up again, Yaku gets a snapshot of her loose, shaggy hair with the tips of the ears peeking out, and stops breathing so suddenly she feels like she's been punched in the chest.

This is so _stupid_ , what the fuck. Yaku has seen girls wearing cat ears before (she's gotten curious and poked around different kinky corners of the internet, just like everyone) and never reacted this way.

Fueled by sullen rage both at Kuroo and at her own reaction, Yaku puts in a strong and aggressive performance at practice. She pushes herself to the limits going after balls just beyond the edge of her ability, and surprises herself by reaching more than a few of them – Coach even remarks on how well she did today.

Despite being bruised from diving so many times, Yaku is in a great mood after practice, which she maintains by completely avoiding Kuroo in the locker room and practically sprinting out the door to class.

Wearing cat ears is evidently such a difficult skill to master that Kuroo has to practice the entire two weeks leading up to the school festival. Yaku keeps waiting to become desensitized to the sight, but it's hideously distracting every single time. The week before the festival Yaku even screws up her timing on escaping the locker room and ends up seeing Kuroo completely naked except for cat ears ( _why??!!?_ ), a sight which she keeps remembering in excruciating detail at the most inconvenient times.

Yaku's class is doing a play and she helped paint the sets, so she's off the hook on the day of the festival and can wander around. She visits Kenma's class, who are selling refreshments, among them little paper cones filled with snacks of your choice. Kenma, true to form, is barricaded in the back behind several desks, meticulously folding paper cones and completely ignoring everything else. Yaku doesn't bother trying to say hi, just pays for her overpriced pretzel sticks and heads back out to the hallway.

Part of being a good teammate is visiting your fellow team members' school festival projects, no matter how dumb. So Yaku goes to Tora's class's haunted house, and plays the trivia game Inuoka and Lev must have played a part in creating (blessedly, they're in the same class; one fewer to visit). She sits through the artistic performances of Kai's and Fukunaga's classes. One of Fukunaga's classmates is actually quite a skilled actress; Yaku is impressed – but doesn't stick around for her own class's play, they're going to look terrible by comparison she's sure. In the rest of the first years' classes, Yaku samples a variety of foods prepared and served with enthusiasm, but with dubious adherence to health and safety regulations.

Finally there's only one class left to visit, the one she's been dreading, and Yaku drags herself back up the the third years' floor. She slows down as she approaches the door – will Kuroo really notice if she doesn't visit? Maybe she can make up an excuse; she was busy with her class's play all day. Except that Tora and most of the first years witnessed her wandering around earlier, and will totally rat her out.

Yaku braces herself and steps inside the classroom.

It's actually really cute inside, they've done a great job decorating, is her first thought. The desks have been transformed into cafe tables with little white tablecloths. Someone in this class must have a family with a restaurant or a catering company; the places are set with real cutlery, plates, and glasses. After so many slapdash attempts from first-year classes today, Yaku is honestly impressed at the attention to detail. It's pretty quiet; a handful of students are seated eating cake, and the students acting as cafe staff are clustered idly in the 'kitchen' corner.

Footsteps approach in the hallway behind her, and Yaku steps out of the way of the doorway and tucks herself next to a stack of desks shoved against the wall, where she won't be underfoot, so she can stop a moment and take in the decor. And then she hears a familiar voice call her name, and she automatically looks over in response—

"Oh for fuck's sake." Yaku really didn't mean to say that out loud, but these assholes weren't content with just a regular catgirl cafe.

Even worse, Kuroo has gotten close enough to hear her. She finishes crossing the room and draws to a stop in front of Yaku, smirking and folding her arms across the ruffly bodice of the black-and-white maid costume she's wearing. It's not a perfect fit – the little puffed sleeves are tight around her biceps, and the skirt was probably intended to be closer to knee-length instead of barely reaching mid-thigh. It means the tops of Kuroo's black stockings are just barely visible, and her legs seem to go on forever. (She's just wearing her regular school shoes though. Yaku supposes there's a limit to a high school class's budget.)

"It's been a while since I've been greeted like that," Kuroo drawls, eyes sparkling with amusement.

"Who's the pervert responsible for – for this?" Yaku retorts, waving a hand vaguely at Kuroo's outfit.

Kuroo cackles and drops her hands to her sides. "You don't like it, Yakutan?" She twirls, making the skirt flare out, and then drops into a curtsy, smirking the whole time.

Yaku makes a wordless noise of disdain – and then she's distracted. "What did you do with your hair?" she asks. It's falling smooth and wavy around Kuroo's face, instead of her usual unruly bedhead.

Kuroo's grin falters, and one hand comes up self-consciously brush it out of her eyes. "Is it bad? Suzuki wanted to try styling it, but I told her my hair doesn't really…style."

"No, it looks great, you're gorgeous," Yaku says flatly, and only hears what she's said when Kuroo's eyes go wide.

"Well. Then." Kuroo clears her throat. "Shall I pass along your thanks to the pervert responsible for all this?" She doesn't quite reach the joking tone Yaku assumes she's aiming for. Kuroo's faintly pink and looking firmly past Yaku at the wall.

Yaku is thrown, because Kuroo is usually impervious to teasing, flirting, comments on her appearance – any of it. Yaku has seen her barely react to numerous people telling her how attractive she is for the entirety of high school. Why would she get all flustered when Yaku complimented her? It's not like she cares what Yaku thinks of her. Why would Kuroo be looking like this, all – all surprised and embarrassed, just because Yaku said she finds her attractive? Does it matter to her that Yaku thinks she's (infuriatingly, distractingly, astonishingly) gorgeous?

…what if it does matter, what if Kuroo does care what Yaku thinks of her. What if Kuroo _wants_ Yaku to be attracted to her—

What if Yaku is making all this up because of wishful thinking, though, is the risk.

Even if Yaku prefers a sure bet, she's willing to take a risk when the possible payoff is so huge.

Yaku breaks the awkward silence that's developed between them. "Do you get to keep the cat ears, after the cafe is done?"

Kuroo blinks at her, and then shrugs. "I haven't asked. I don't know what I'd do with them, anyways." She's still blushing, but seems happy enough to move into safer conversational waters.

"Well," says Yaku slowly, "I bet they'd work really well if you wanted to like, seduce someone. Or get them to confess, or something." Her hands are clenched into fists at her sides to keep herself from fidgeting with the hem of her shirt or something equally stupid.

"Oh yeah?" Kuroo replies. Her tone is casual, but her expression is doing something complicated, cautious and intent.

"Yeah," Yaku agrees. "Probably if you invited someone over for like, a study date and wore them, it'd. Uh. Be effective." She looks away as she trails off, rubbing a hand over the back of her head.

Kuroo hums thoughtfully. "What an intriguing idea. I'll have to ponder that," she says smoothly, but when Yaku dares to look back up Kuroo is wearing a soft half-smile that Yaku has never seen on her face before. Their gazes catch and hold for a lingering moment, and Yaku isn't sure what exactly her own expression is but it seems to be encouraging, as Kuroo's smile edges wider.

"Anyways!" Kuroo says briskly, clapping her hands together and breaking the moment. "Welcome to our cafe for perverts." She half-turns and gestures to the scattered desks, ignoring Yaku's choked-off sputtering. "Please sit wherever you'd like!"

Yaku endures being served a tiny, cute slice of cake and a cup of tea, all on matching china (definitely a catering company; Yaku is willing to bet Kuroo's classmate is going to take over the family business after graduation). Kuroo balances everything carefully in her calloused, short-nailed hands when she brings it over. Yaku endures Kuroo flirting outrageously with her the entire time; endures Kuroo flirting outrageously with every other person in the room. Accepts that she can't tear her gaze away from the gangly jackass. Thrills every time Kuroo looks back at her, catches her looking, and completely fails to suppress a smile breaking out.

Yaku really hopes she gets an invitation to that study date.


End file.
